[trapae]

I clean my keg lines in between every new keg. I used to take off my tap faucets (Perlick) as well and clean them in between each Keg, however I stopped doing that maybe five or six kegs ago and just run the cleaning solution that I’m cleaning the lines with through them.
Well yesterday after pouring in pint, I closed the tap and it started leaking and would not shut off completely. I quickly opened the refrigerator and popped off the Out-port.  After removing all of my faucet and taking them apart, they were all pretty gummy. Ended up taking them all apart and soaking them for 24 hours in beer line cleaner and scrubbing them. Guess I’ll go back to cleaning them more often.
— How often do you all clean yours.

[James K]

I clean my keg lines in between every new keg. I used to take off my tap faucets (Perlick) as well and clean them in between each Keg, however I stopped doing that maybe five or six kegs ago and just run the cleaning solution that I’m cleaning the lines with through them.
Well yesterday after pouring in pint, I closed the tap and it started leaking and would not shut off completely. I quickly opened the refrigerator and popped off the Out-port.  After removing all of my faucet and taking them apart, they were all pretty gummy. Ended up taking them all apart and soaking them for 24 hours in beer line cleaner and scrubbing them. Guess I’ll go back to cleaning them more often.
— How often do you all clean yours.

Usually I just run pbw and star San through them. Mine are stainless intertaps. Depending on how many beers I have going or what’s in the works I give them a good soaking every couple of batches. But that’s a while because I have 3 taps rotating, so maybe every 3-6 months will I soak the faucets.

I just got rid of some faucets that had creamers (push back for cream). They seemed to get noticeably grimier. I think because of how the faucet mechanism closed, at times it would take more than a few drips for those to be fully closed.

I clean the lines more often than the faucets themselves.

[Bob357]

More than lack of cleaning, I have found that as the main O ring loses its resiliency you need to work the handle in order to get a good seal. I found the O ring kits and replaced all of them in my Perlicks. I almost forgot how nice they worked when they were new.

[Robert]

I clean line and faucet every two weeks (BLC or PBW.) Have to remove faucet to clean line anyway, so it's no extra trouble to  disassemble and soak faucet while line is cleaned.  If you clean faucets less often you might be appalled to see what's in there when you do.  Or just to taste your beer.  Every three months use acid cleaner in addition to destone everything.  [This is the procedure recommended in the Brewers Association's Draught  Beer Quality Manual. Find it on the BA site.] Since following this routine beer pours and tastes much better.

[trapae]

 Yep, guess I’m going to go back to cleaning the taps way more often.

[blatz]

hmm.  I clean my lines and faucets every 3 months with BLC and iodophor.  I've been running a kegerator (ventmatics and perlicks) for over 10 years and I've never experienced the problems you are facing. 

faucets definitely get gunky though, I would always clean them at the same time as the lines.

[Robert]

hmm.  I clean my lines and faucets every 3 months with BLC and iodophor.  I've been running a kegerator (ventmatics and perlicks) for over 10 years and I've never experienced the problems you are facing. 

faucets definitely get gunky though, I would always clean them at the same time as the lines.

Got forward-sealing faucets, like Perlicks? They are less gunk-accreting than standard vented types, but you're still lucky if you can go 3 months! (I do have forward-sealing.)

[blatz]

Got forward-sealing faucets, like Perlicks? They are less gunk-accreting than standard vented types, but you're still lucky if you can go 3 months! (I do have forward-sealing.)

yeah - forward seal.  that and having the tower cooled I think helps. 

when I did not have the tower cooled, I had to run cleaner a lot more often - maybe every 6-8 weeks.

[Robert]

Got forward-sealing faucets, like Perlicks? They are less gunk-accreting than standard vented types, but you're still lucky if you can go 3 months! (I do have forward-sealing.)

yeah - forward seal.  that and having the tower cooled I think helps. 

when I did not have the tower cooled, I had to run cleaner a lot more often - maybe every 6-8 weeks.

I have a keezer w/o tower, so maybe I could clean less often like you.  I just adopted my schedule back when I had the vented type, and then even 2 weeks was pushing it.  But 2 weeks fits my general schedule, so I'll keep seeing on the side of caution.  I guess the takeaway for the OP should be, figure out in your own system how often you need to clean.  The beer will tell you!

[narcout]

— How often do you all clean yours.

I try to disassemble and clean my faucets once a year.

There's never very much gunk in them.  I do run Iodophor solution through the lines and faucets after every keg though.

[majorvices]

I don't clean my home taps often enough. Probably once every 2 month (perlicks).

At the brewery I have them cleaned weekly. It's a lot easier to clean them when you can say "Hey, kid, clean the taps."

[EnkAMania]

I clean them every time one of these threads come up.

[hopfenundmalz]

Not often enough. No big problems, but man am I lazy on some brewing chores.